Claire Kerrane | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kerrane in 2024 | |
| Teachta Dála | |
| Assumed office February 2020 | |
| Constituency | Roscommon–Galway |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1992-04-24)24 April 1992 (age 33) Frenchpark,County Roscommon, Ireland |
| Party | Sinn Féin |
| Alma mater | NUI Galway |
Claire Kerrane (born 24 April 1992) is an IrishSinn Féin politician who has been aTeachta Dála (TD) for theRoscommon–Galway constituency since the2020 general election.[1]
She is a member of the Sinn FéinArd chomhairle.[citation needed] She is the party's spokesperson on children and youth[2]
Kerrane is from the village of Tibohine inCounty Roscommon. She was raised on a farm. She has said there was no history of republicanism in her family: her mother is English and her paternal grandfather was a "staunchFine Gael activist".[3] She joined Sinn Féin at the age of 18 during a dispute over plans to build ananaerobic digestion plant in her area, when she became involved in an action group against the project.[4]
In 2016, Kerrane qualified as a secondary school teacher.[4]
Kerrane joinedÓgra Shinn Féin at the age of 15 and was a Sinn Féin organiser atNUI Galway (NUIG) during her time as a university student there studying English, Sociology and Politics.[2][4] She was still a student at NUIG when she became a parliamentary assistant toindependent TDLuke 'Ming' Flanagan on his election to the Dáil at the2011 general election.[2] Later she became a political adviser on social protection for Sinn Féin inLeinster House.
Flanagan endorsed her as a candidate at the 2020 general election, in which she was elected and entered national politics for the first time.[5] Kerrane retained her seat at the2024 general election.[6]
Kerrane has traced her political awakening to the 2011 closure of the emergency unit at Roscommon University Hospital, an event that sparked protests across the county and left her with a sense of betrayal after Fine Gael broke campaign promises to retain the service. Kerrane has noted that Sinn Féin had been strongly involved in the campaign, despite its limited local presence, and credited her family’s close connection with long-time Sinn Féin councillor Michael Mulligan with deepening her engagement.[3] Kerrane has described Irish unity as her central motivation, alongside Sinn Féin left-republican commitment tosocial justice and equality. Rejecting claims of any ideological drift to the centre, in 2022 she argued that politics in Ireland had shifted away from old Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael divides and expressed her desire to see Sinn Féin work with other small left-wing parties to form a left-led government in the future.[3]